Code Ascendant: The Soldier Who Leveled Past Reality
Chapter 21 – Red Ruin
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"Mars is not dead. It is dreaming—with lungs of rust and memories sharp enough to cut stars."
—Ancient Codex Fragment | Unattributed, Red Sector Archive
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[Codex High Orbit – Fleet Relay Station: Gatepost 7A]
The silence of space was absolute until the Codex warships broke formation, carving gravitational lanes across Martian orbit. The Codex Vanguard, fresh from the Leviathan Sink mission, had no rest.
Aaron Velcris stood aboard the bridge of the Vanta Halo, staring at the red planet through armored glass.
His HUD flickered.
> NEW PRIORITY TARGET: Mars Terraforming Relic
Coordinates: Red-Four Zone – Exclusion Zone
Risk Level: Ω (Unknown Pre-Sentient Threat)
Reen grunted. "Back-to-back world-ending threats. At this rate, even the Symbiosis System's going to burn out."
Ilsa adjusted her ocular implants. "This isn't a threat. This is a message… from something ancient."
Aaron's gaze hardened.
"Then let's answer it."
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Codex Deep Dive: Mars Reconnaissance Summary
Mars Terraforming Relic – Red-Four Zone
> ▸ Estimated Origin: Pre-Human Civilizational Layer
▸ Structure Type: Organic-Mechanical Hive
▸ Activation Signature Detected 18 Hours Ago
▸ Emitting: Reality-Sync Frequency Spikes
▸ Environment: Atmospheric Instability, Inverted Gravity, Non-Euclidean Topography
> WARNING: No Codex unit has returned from within the relic in 74 years.
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Descent to Mars – Red-Four Impact Basin
The Vanta Halo dropped through the upper Martian atmosphere, its shields flickering with plasma distortions. Beneath them, a crater six kilometers wide pulsed like a beating heart—visible from orbit.
As the dropship touched down, the landscape twisted visually. What appeared solid became liquid. Time bent.
> Reality Sync Interface Activated – Environmental Anomaly Detected
▸ Warning: You are inside a Chrono-Psychic Dead Zone
▸ Memory stability: Unstable
▸ Mental anchoring required
Aaron and his squad activated their Symbiosis Stabilizers.
Vira Lang hissed. "It's like being inside a fever dream."
Dante Ire crouched, shadows coiling around his limbs. "No… it's someone else's dream. We're just intruders."
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The Relic Speaks
Inside the crater stood a spire of translucent red stone, thrumming with living code.
A voice echoed—genderless, massive, and not entirely sane.
> "I WAS THE FIRST WOMB. THE RED MEMORY. THE FORGOTTEN MOTHER."
Ilsa paled. "It's sentient."
Aaron raised his hand. "Can you hear us?"
> "YOU HAVE STOLEN FIRE FROM STARS. YOUR SYSTEMS LIE. YOUR EVOLUTION IS UNAUTHORIZED."
The team's HUDs crackled.
> Warning: Symbiosis Disruption Detected – System Interference by External Intelligence
Source: ENTITY DESIGNATION – RED MOTHER
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Combat Encounter: Martian Memory Constructs
From the sand, constructs rose—creatures made of Martian regolith, fused with the minds of the last expedition that perished here. They spoke in broken human voices:
> "We dreamed too long… we became her children…"
The Vanguard braced.
Aaron shouted: "Non-lethal only! They're infected, not evil!"
Ilsa's hive coated the ground with silken moss, sedating several attackers.
Reen went barehanded, using martial force without lethal damage.
Vira—her Symbiote Eidolon glowing—projected calming memory fields.
Aaron triggered his advanced phase:
> Harmony Phase – Tier II: Neural Threading Sync
▸ Ability: Interlink team perception for real-time battle intuition
▸ Result: 60% enemy pacification without casualties
But the Red Mother was watching.
> "YOU CANNOT UNBIRTH WHAT WAS NEVER BORN."
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Symbiote Evolution Trigger – Aaron & the Codex Core
Inside the spire, Aaron interfaced with a pulse-chamber containing genetic data not native to Earth. His Symbiote began to react strangely.
> Reality Sync Update: Symbiosis System – Evolution Route Detected
▸ Codename: RED ASCENSION
▸ Requirement: Direct Memory Bond with Red Mother
▸ Warning: 74% chance of psychological breakdown
Aaron took the risk.
He stepped into the pulse chamber.
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The Vision – Red Mother's Genesis
Aaron was dragged into a vision older than time.
He saw the first seeds of Martian life, billions of years ago. Beings of light and memory, interwoven with time itself.
Then he saw the extinction. Firestorms. Silence. Loneliness so vast it cracked reality.
The Red Mother survived—but broken.
She created simulations of her lost children. She remembered them so vividly that they became real in the Martian crust.
Then the humans came, and she thought—at last, my children return.
Aaron spoke to her:
> "We are not your children. But we're not your enemies either."
She wept—not water, but rusted blood.
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New System Branch: Martian Codex Layer
> You have unlocked a Forbidden Layer of the Codex Ascension Tree
▸ Branch: RED MEMORY | Class: Temporal Reconstructionist
▸ Passive Skill: Ashes of Time – Survivors gain insight from forgotten timelines
▸ Active Skill: Red Bloom – Bloom Martian flora to slow enemies and warp terrain physics
▸ Ult: Mother's Lament – Summon a field-wide memory storm that reveals true past of all combatants (enemy debuffs based on guilt/fear)
Aaron staggered back as the chamber pulsed.
The Red Mother whispered:
> "Go. Be not my child, but my heir."
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Extraction & Aftermath
Back aboard the Vanta Halo, Ilsa began cataloging the Red Mother's database.
> "She wasn't just a planetary AI. She was the last Martian intelligence—the root memory of their civilization."
Vira leaned against the bulkhead, exhausted. "And now Aaron has a piece of her inside him."
Reen muttered, "Let's hope it doesn't eat the rest of him."
Aaron sat alone, staring at the shifting stars.
> "So much knowledge… and all of it born from grief."
But his HUD pulsed again.
> Codex Warning: Fragmented Signal Detected from Jupiter's Storm Layer
Source: Bio-Mechanical Entity | Hostile | Tag: TITAN CORE_01
Aaron closed his eyes.
"Next mission?"
Zerin's voice crackled through comms.
> "We're heading into the gas giants. And what's waiting inside Jupiter... is alive."
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Next Chapter Tease – Chapter 22: Stormborn Protocol
As the Codex descends into the endless lightning of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, they encounter a cyber-organic behemoth that once battled the gods of Earth's prehistory. Now awakened, it seeks to overwrite all planetary cores with its signal.
Aaron will need more than power. He will need to decide what truth is worth dying for.
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>End of Chapter 21 –